


laura's back in town

by songfic_suites



Category: In Treatment
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-17
Updated: 2013-03-17
Packaged: 2017-12-05 13:54:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/724031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songfic_suites/pseuds/songfic_suites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>New York is a big city but somehow she finds him anyway. Post-Season 3 finale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	laura's back in town

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Don’t own the characters or anything affliated with the show. Not for profit but entertainment.  
> Author’s note: Another part of my daily exercises that up and decided it wanted to be a legit story. Plot bunnies will not be denied.

 

 

 

Paul hears from Daniel and for a moment he can’t cover his reaction.

“Laura’s back in town.”

He chokes on his drink and Daniel smiles, even in the low light of the wine bar, he catches a knowing smile. Daniel is always quicker than he expects, or is he just getting slower?

“How is she?” Paul asks with a sigh. He doesn’t hide his interest because he can’t. Daniel is still smiling and Paul takes a longer pull on his drink.

“She asked me the same thing,” he pauses for effect, “about you.”

Paul now purposely stares at his drink, the clink of glasses and hushed laughter fills the void.

“She’s doing well,” Daniel says and Paul can’t stop the sigh that escapes.

“I’m glad. I truly am,” Paul replies and Daniel moves on to his practice and the crazy patient of the day stories. Paul listens and nods but he knows Daniel’s aware that he isn’t hearing a word. At least, not really. It’s the sound of another human being that Paul craves. To hear someone’s life, their joys and rants and not be asked to solve anything. It took Paul about half a year before he could talk to Daniel without noticing all his tics and reverting back to being a therapist.

Daniel is Paul’s first real friend and he loathes and cherishes the sound of that word. Slowly but surely, he’s gaining more the longer he works at the bookstore. Twenty years as a therapist only to count books and occasionally talk rare books with a curious customer from time to time.

 

 

He’s cataloguing the new shipments when he sees her in his doorway. He drops the book he’s holding. It’s a day after Daniel first told him Laura was back. He stands, smiles full of nerves and the sight of her still makes his throat tight.

“Hey,” is all Paul can muster.

She smiles, all bright teeth and he can’t help but wonder if he has dust in his hair or if he’s as dashing as she remembers.

“You say ‘Hey’ now,” Laura says, coming into his office and resting her hip on his work table. Enzo must have told her where the little repair room was, but he wasn’t sure if he was angry or thankful. Both felt too full for his chest.

She traced a finger down the book spine that he dropped. “I like that,” then stuck her hand back into her pocket, slightly guilty. She drags her eyes over his body, but all he can is her pulling her shirt over her head, a challenge/resignation in her eyes…

“I do a lot of things differently,” he says and cringes at how suggestive it sounds.

She smiles in surprise but does not comment. he wants to fill the silence with the mundane, with useless information and boring facts but all that comes out is: “I get a break in fifteen minutes.”

Laura’s eyes widen, but she nods and wanders off into the shelves and stacks. His eyes fall to his work. He doesn’t have a break soon but Enzo shouldn’t mind.

 

 

After finding Laura in the religious section, they set off for a place of her choosing. Instead of the diners and the coffeeshops they pass, Laura pulls on Paul’s arm into a shaded park, the trees forming an arch overhead. When Paul falls in step with Laura, he notices she does not release his arm. Instead, she loops hers around his, gently steering them under a canopy of trees. She releases him then, sitting down and looking up at him with that all too familiar gaze. Unfazed, he smiles back and sits down and she smiles wider.

“You look good,” she says.

“You do too,” Paul replies.

They fall into silence. Paul takes in the sun of spring in New York, the chatter of birds and the sudden, brief spurt of laughter in the distance.

“I’ve missed you, Laura,” Paul says suddenly.

He feels her freeze. Paul thought he’d be smoother, honestly. He imagined, if he ever saw her again, all the things he’d say to make her laugh, make her smile, make her see he’s changed but the words bubble out and spill before he can stop himself.

“I don’t expect,” Paul sighs and gathers his courage, “that things have stayed the same, I just,” he pauses, “thought you should know.”

He finally brought his eyes to meet hers but she was looking at the grass. He looks down and sees her eyes were on their hands and how close the tips of their fingers are to each other. He looks back at her again and she is looking directly at him with _that gaze_.

“My therapist told me it was a mistake to come and see you,” Laura says and pulls her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them. Paul remains silent but still listening.

“Yeah, I’m still in therapy,” she chuckles and gives a slight shrug.

“I’m not judging,” Paul replies. “I was myself, until recently.”

Her eyes widened, “You?”

He laughed. “Even therapists need therapists sometimes.”

She laughed with him. “Probably even more so.”

They fell into silence again.

Paul wanted to reach out to her, pull her close but he stilled himself, listening to his therapist instincts.

“I thought,” she pauses, “I believed that if I waited long enough, if I let enough time pass and dated outside my destructive cycle, this,” she motions a hand briefly between them, “would fade.” She covers her face and chuckles to herself.

“I wanted to prove I was over it, you,” she says, “And then I saw you today,” she bites her lip, “behind those books with your glasses slipping off your nose and I thought—“

“Go ahead, finish your thought Laura,” he says.

She smiles and Paul realizes what he just did.

“Forget what I just said. Old habit,” he says, waving the comment away.

“Do you still see yourself as my therapist?”

Point blank.

No preamble.

How did they get here so fast?

“Was that too soon?” she asks.

“No, no it wasn’t too soon. I’d just,” he smiles apologetically, “I’d just forgotten how direct you were.”

“Bet you probably didn’t miss that.”

“You still don’t believe me,” he says, more statement than question.

Laura looks up. “No.”

Paul leans back on his hands, letting his face catch the sun and feel its full warmth, the grass still cool under his palms.

“How long are you in town?” he asks.

“Trying to get rid of me already?”

“I just,” Paul pauses, hesitating until giving in and putting his hand over hers on her knee. “I just want to know how long we have to catch up.”

He waits for her to question him again but she doesn’t. She smiles and she nods.

 

And they agree to see each other again.


End file.
